


there’s a devil on my shoulder

by savanting



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Pirate Queen Audrey, Post-Canon, Post-Descendants 3, Soft Harry Hook, just one passing scene and it lit a fire inside me, kissing fic, the otp I never knew I needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26143990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Audrey Rose and Harry Hook may be the “it” couple Auradon never knew it needed.(Ficlet following Audrey in the aftermath of Descendants 3, what happened after she pulled Harry into a dance, and the resulting relationship — of sorts — that followed. Expect All the Fluff.)
Relationships: Aurora/Phillip (Disney), Harry Hook/Audrey Rose, Jane/Carlos de Vil
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	1. untethered

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any Disney properties. Well — this came about because I am a sucker for banter, and Audrey and Harry seem rife for it. They are just really cute in my head; I wish they could have their own spin-off! But I hope Descendants fans enjoy it.
> 
> Title comes from lyrics in the song "Queen of Mean" from _Descendants 3_ (Disney)

Audrey could feel her parents’ disappointment like it was a palpable weight in the air. Aurora and Phillip had always been the epitome of a perfect couple to her, with the way they moved as if in response to each other’s every thought, and even now they stood side by side, united as a force against her.

_Not ‘against,’_ Audrey told herself. _They’re still your parents. They love you._

But her mother’s usually unlined face bore the creases of a frown, and Audrey had never realized how her father’s brown hair had begun to gray at his temples. They looked so world-weary and tired, while she sat before them like a child ready to be punished.

Her father drew a long breath. “Audrey, we cannot believe that you would endanger the kingdom like you did,” Phillip said, “and for what? Your selfish ambitions?” He shook his head. “We didn’t raise you to be like this.”

Audrey looked down at her hands folded in her lap, and she felt a lump rise in her throat. _Don’t cry,_ she told herself furiously as she had the urge to dig her nails into her palm. _You are not a child to use your tears for pity._

Then her mother, lovely Aurora with her ever-golden hair and empathetic eyes, stepped forward and tipped Audrey’s chin up. “My darling,” she said, “I know you loved Ben. And I know you had always thought you would be his queen. But — to take Maleficent’s scepter and try to bend the kingdom to your will? Those aren’t the actions of a woman ready to be a queen. Those are the actions of a little girl throwing a tantrum.”

Then Aurora’s fingertips fell away, and the tears that Audrey had forbidden herself to let loose began to fall, slipping down her cheeks like a deluge. She looked at her mother, then at her father. “I’m — I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

But her parents did not smile at her or comfort her. They stood apart, still staring at her like she was a stranger in their castle.

“You don’t need to apologize to us,” Aurora said sadly. “You need to make amends to the kingdom.”

Audrey wiped away her tears, upset at herself for letting them fall. After all, what did her tears signify? They were just her feeling sorry for herself. “What do you want me to do?” she asked.

Aurora just looked at her with those saddened eyes. Audrey wondered if her mother would ever again feel proud of her after this. “You need to search inside your heart for that answer, my little one,” she said.

Then they left her there, gone away to a court charity function, and Audrey felt even more alone than she had ever thought possible.

*

Not long after her parents had left for their event, Audrey heard a bell toll throughout the castle. She cocked her head as she sat in the library, just staring at the pages of the blank diary she had just begun, having burned the last one that had been filled with all the pain she had felt after losing her chance to become queen of Auradon.

A few minutes later, Flora appeared in the doorway, her lips pursed. “You have a visitor, Audrey,” she said. And, Audrey observed, the fairy didn’t look happy about it.

Ah. The bell had been someone calling at the door. Her parents usually only accepted guests at the cottage because they found it more cozy and intimate there. They weren’t one for appearances like her grandmother was.

“Who is it?” Audrey asked, puzzled. She hadn’t seen anyone since the last large celebration after the barrier between the Isle of the Lost and Auradon had fallen. And everyone had been pretty much treating her like a pariah when they did see her. It would be a long time before Audrey rid herself of the stigma associated with her time as a queen of darkness.

Flora opened her mouth to speak — but she needn’t have bothered.

A looming figure stepped from the hallway and past Flora — who looked appalled. Leather, buckles, even a cravat — Harry Hook certainly knew how to be more stylish than most Auradon boys. But that didn’t mean Audrey felt warm and fuzzy upon seeing him, like other girls who had gone flocking after him the moment he arrived. Something inside her just squirmed, like she had a lizard in her belly that wanted to hide under a rock rather than face a predator.

In greeting Harry waved the hook he carried with him everywhere.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, voice sharper than she intended. She must have sounded really rude since Flora’s appalled look transferred from Harry to her.

“Oh, just making house calls,” the pirate said, strolling in without a seeming care in the world. “I’m a little rusty, but it’s the proper thing to visit the neighbors, right?”

_Neighbors?_ Audrey hoped he just meant that he was getting used to his new home in Auradon after moving from the Isle.

Before she could process this, however, she fixed her gaze on Flora. “You can leave us.”

Flora looked ready to protest. “Oh, but I—“

“Flora, I think Fauna needs help in the garden,” Audrey said, and the fairy hesitated only another moment before hurrying from the room.

“Perhaps you should be kinder to the help,” Harry said, and Audrey fixed a spiteful gaze on him.

“Flora isn’t _the help_ ; she’s family.”

“Could have fooled me,” Harry said, whistling between his teeth in a way that set her on edge.

“She’s _family_ , end of story,” Audrey reiterated, and to that Harry just raised his hands, letting the matter drop. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and stood up. “What are you doing here, Harry?”

“I thought we could continue our last dance from a few nights ago,” Harry said, miming a waltz as if he had an invisible partner in his arms.

Audrey narrowed her eyes. Poor Isle boy, not knowing what a true romantic courtship in Auradon looked like. Sure, they had bumped into each other at the celebration, and she had pulled him into a dance — but it had gone sour from there. He had made a funny comment about her hair. She had taken offense and called him a scoundrel. He had laughed it off and called her _”a softie of a princess,”_ and the night had ended with her storming away because she couldn’t stand how he laughed at her so easily. He was like one of those horrid boys who teased girls because they were too immature to know how to show their feelings any other way.

But the worst part of it was that he had smiled at every other girl, his eyes drawing away from her as if tugged on the end of a string whenever another eligible lady swept by. _Look at me,_ she had wanted to say. _Look at me and no one else._

Absurd. She had spent, what, only an hour or two with him?

But he was here, looking at her expectantly, and she couldn’t help but feel — flattered. Even though she knew he wasn’t the only girl he likely wanted to “continue a dance” with.

Harry sauntered closer, and Audrey felt a rush of panic as he invaded her personal space inch by inch.

But no. Audrey may have not been a queen, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hold herself like one.

She met the challenge in his eyes. “Do you always do that?” she asked, her tone casual, anything to hide her awareness of the heat crawling up her neck.

“Do what, dearie?” he said, that mocking smirk — the very same she knew from the night they had danced — on his face again, as he stepped away. Then he slumped back and reclined in one of the library’s leather chairs, his long legs poised over one of the armrests. That smile infuriated her, the sight of it, but she also felt herself drawn to it. She felt like a moth flying dizzily close to the flames of a torch.

Harry Hook had known _exactly_ what he had been doing, but she would take a different tact.

“Act like you own the world,” she said. She posed, hands on her hips, and did an impression of his swagger, her head held high with her chin upturned. “Strutting like you’re the most important person in the room.”

But Harry just shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what she had just said. And he did nothing to hide the fact that he was _laughing_ at her. Again. This pirate, ooh, he made her blood boil. “Oh, princess, you need to look in a mirror sometime — though I suspect you do that more than enough, now that I think on it.” He reached up and actually ran a thumb along her cheek. The casual touch startled her so much that she couldn’t even react. “Your make-up is too flawless for you _not_ to be a fan of mirrors.”

Then he leaned away and continued, as if he had not just touched her as intimately as if he had been a prince leaning in to give her True Love’s Kiss to break a villainous curse, “You’re just projecting a _wee_ bit — because that’s what you do, isn’t it? Walk into a room like you’re the ruler and everyone else is just a subject below you?”

Audrey made a scoffing noise. “As if,” she said. Then, as an after-thought, she mumbled, “I’ll never be a queen. Not anymore.”

“Still hung up on that, are you?” Harry blew on the hook he held and rubbed it clean with his other hand. Already he was acting bored with her. Not that, she supposed, she had ever been good company at all. Mostly she had just been surrounded by sycophants — and all of Ben’s friends, never truly hers. “Well, can’t blame you, really. I don’t know how I’d react if I never got to be captain of my own ship.”

“Captain?” Her eyes snapped to attention. “Didn’t you inherit your father’s ship?”

Harry glanced at her once before his gaze returned to the hook in his hand as a humorless laugh escaped his lips. “Doesn’t exactly work that way if your father leaves you no ship to inherit,” he said, all amusement gone from his voice. “No, all the old man left me was this hook right here.”

Audrey might have said something comforting if she had been any other princess — but her baser instincts took over. “Ew,” she said. “That’s the hook he had for a hand?”

Harry was quiet for a moment before he raised the hook up to her face. There was another full-blown smirk on his face. “Why? Do you want to touch it, princess?”

She slapped away the hook. She didn’t even care if the hook had once been in place of a ruthless captain’s hand or not. “You’re an awful boy,” she said.

His eyes glittered as he leaned back. “Why, thank you.” He then tapped the hook against his chin. “And, you know, I think you’re an awful girl. If we’re throwing around compliments.”

“That’s not a compliment,” she snapped, folding her arms over her chest. _Not here in Auradon, anyway._

“Better to be awful than a damn sap, sugar water in your veins,” Harry said. Then he smiled lazily up at her. “And something tells me that you, princess, don’t sugar-coat anything for anyone. No matter how much you wish you could be that sweet little darling all the people love.”

His words — Audrey didn’t want to say he was right. Because then she would be denying her own family’s legacy. Hadn’t her father said that he had fallen in love with Aurora’s goodness first and foremost? Her sweet demeanor? And then denying those things would be putting a lock on the box of all her desires — a loving prince who loved _her_ truly, people who raised her up as a woman to be exemplified, gazes that told her she mattered because _she_ was wonderful and worthy and worthwhile. “You don’t know a damn thing about me,” she said, her tone vicious.

“Ooh, getting a bit feisty now, are you?” Harry grinned at her. “You should do that more often, princess. Brings out the color in your cheeks.”

All the anger she felt rising in her chest — just deflated out of her in a whoosh. _This boy._ He met her tit for tat every time, and nothing ever fazed him. Even when she was serious, he just treated her like a joke. Was everything a game to him?

Isle boys weren’t for dating, for courting, and she didn’t know if she had the energy even for a dalliance. She may not have survived the banter.

“Enough,” she said, her voice growing softer. “Be serious, Harry. Just what do you want?”

He slowly unfolded himself from the chair and stood, facing her. “What I want,” he said, “is to take you out tonight. Get you out of this drab castle and out on the town.”

The breath whooshed out of her. Even with the trajectory of her thoughts, she hadn’t expected — _that_. “What?”

Harry’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “Do I need to pull a dictionary off the shelf? You were ready to be a queen to King Benny, but you don’t know what a date is?”

She could have smacked him, and she rose to his bait. “I know what a date is.”

“Then come with me,” he said, and for once — maybe for the first time in his life — he sounded serious, his voice falling lower. “You can choose the place, make yourself comfortable, be in your scene. You can’t hole yourself away in this place until you wither away.” Then he leaned in, his lips whisper-close to her ear, “I won’t allow it.”

Before she could react to _that_ , he retreated and continued, “And if you want to leave early, so be it. I may be a pirate, but I won’t keep you prisoner.” His hook brushed against her cheek. “I suspect too many people have kept you prisoner already.”

And a small part of her — _melted_ to hear those words. Audrey would never tell Harry Hook, at least not for a long while, but he was right. She _had_ felt locked in a cage most of her life. But maybe the key was waiting for her now, gleaming with new promise.

This pirate boy had offered her that.

Then Audrey realized — they were still close, so close that she could time the breaths rising from his chest, and if she just leaned in, tilted her head _just so_ and parted her mouth, then—

Harry’s hook tapped against her lips.

“Sorry, princess,” he said, a sly smile on his face. “I don’t kiss on the first date — unless you buy me dinner first.”

Then Audrey really did smack him — on the arm, she wasn’t a barbarian — but she was laughing too. And it felt like the very first breath of freedom she’d had in a long, long time.


	2. unfiltered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Audrey allows Harry Hook to have his first date after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any Disney properties. AND HERE WE GO TO PART 2. I hope it's enjoyable!

“You’re awfully quiet, princess,” Harry Hook said, holding his hook up in the gleam of sunlight pouring through the tree branches. “Don’t tell me I’ve bored you already?”

Audrey walked beside the pirate, her head bowed, as her mind buzzed with frenetic energy. Here she was strolling through the Fairy Garden, a public park not far from her family’s old cottage. She had chosen it not because of its remoteness – though there was that, given her current public image in the aftermath of her work with Maleficent’s scepter – but because it had always calmed her in the past. Though, now that she thought about it, she had come here quite often with Ben as well in their youth, back when their free time had been filled with make-believe play – full of wooden swords and invisible dragons – instead of homework study dates and chaste stolen kisses beneath willow trees.

Funnily enough, thinking of Ben now didn’t hurt as much as it once did. Audrey had once thought that losing him had been the end of her life as she knew it. Even after he broke her heart, though, she still breathed and walked and lived.

It hadn’t been true love, after all. A lost true love may as well have been a death sentence – or so all the old tomes of Auradon had claimed when she and Ben had studied the histories. All the stories had told her that true love was the greatest magic of all.

Yet here she was, walking beside a pirate – an ex-Isle boy with eyes that were far too intimidating to be charming – who certainly did not have _true love_ on his mind.

The tip of that blasted hook grazed her cheek, and Audrey nearly jumped. It was not a good idea to get lost in thought around a boy like Harry.

“Talk to me, princess,” he said. “Forget boredom. Are you ashamed?”

The question was too on-point for her comfort because she knew what he was really asking: _”Are you ashamed to be seen with me?”_

But she looked up at him, into those eyes that brimmed with depths like an unknowable sea, and she steeled herself. “I’m actually surprised it’s not the other way around,” she admitted. “I mean, you just got to Auradon. Are you sure you won’t be sorry if anyone sees you with me?”

Instead of laughing at her and saying he wasn’t scared of anything, as she might have expected him to do, Harry just stared at her. Before she could decipher his expression or puzzle out what it meant, though, he whirled around in a circle, the hook tip-tapping against his chin. “You know, princess,” he said, “that actually hadn’t even crossed my mind. Though, really, I guess I should be a bit more wary. What if you’re actually a bad influence?”

Her mouth popped open in a very undignified manner. Her recent deeds notwithstanding, how _dare_ he speak like that to a princess? The daughter of Aurora the Kind?

Then his mouth pulled up into that smirk that made her feel that peculiar squirming in her stomach. “Who knows, after all? You may make me go back to my wicked, wicked ways.”

Forget _princess-like_ behavior. Forget that this was supposed to be a date, an escape away from her tumbling thoughts over what had happened the last few days. She stomped right up to Harry Hook, her face pushed up into his space, and she was viciously glad he actually leaned away from her. Now she felt like the one laughing at _him_. “Don’t confuse us,” she said, jabbing a finger into his chest with every word. “ _You_ are the wicked one. I’m – I’m reformed!”

But whatever shock he felt, he did not show it at all and instead leaned forward into _her_ space. She backed up out of instinct – perhaps out of preservation. “So you _do_ admit you were a tad wicked,” Harry said. “That’s good to know. At least you’re not in denial.”

She pursed her lips. “What, are you trying to go all Fairy Godmother on me? Reverse psychology?”

“I don’t know who or what that is,” he said breezily, swirling away from her as easily as if his steps were choreography in a dance. She seriously could not keep up with him and his moods; they were as shifting as the tides in the sea. Then he cast another grin over his shoulder. “Do you want to treat me to that dinner now, princess, or are you going to renege on our little deal?”

 _AGH!_ He was _maddening_.

“There was no deal!” she protested as she followed after him, helplessly on the end of his hook in spite of herself.

*

The Waffle Hut was not the cleanest place in Auradon – it certainly wasn’t the French restaurant Audrey had frequented with Ben and his family – but it was a nice little hideaway of a place where she had often gone with Ben after his tourney games. She settled back into the cracked red vinyl seat as Harry slid across from her, his eyes drinking up his surroundings like he had never been outside before.

 _Oh._ Audrey glanced down at her lap, mortified at the insensitive slip in her thoughts. Harry probably had never been to many restaurants or diners. She didn’t even know if they existed on the Isle. Though she knew all about Auradon’s landscape and its history, she definitely could not say the same of the Isle of the Lost.

Lifting her eyes to watch Harry as he picked up one of the plastic menus, she had to admit that she wanted to learn. At least a little bit. After all, the girl who had once wanted to be queen of Auradon couldn’t be a complete novice when it came to Isle know-how, right?

“What are the pan-cakes?” Harry asked, still staring down at the plastic menu as if it held all the secrets to the world.

Audrey had to smother a laugh behind her lips. “They’re, um, flat circles made out of batter. They’re served hot with all kinds of things – syrup, butter, powdered sugar, even fruit like strawberries or bananas.”

“Oh,” Harry hummed, sounding a bit intrigued. “I’ve always wanted to try bananas. They were one of my dad’s favorite things.”

She had begun tearing at the paper napkin in her lap – she couldn’t figure out what to do with her hands right then, it was such a peculiar thing – but then she snapped to attention upon hearing Harry mention his dad so casually. Her gaze fell to the hook that he had carefully placed on the table before her eyes settled back on the pirate boy.

“Do you – do you ever miss him?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t treading too close too fast, afraid – of all things! – that she might scare him off. From the snippets Harry had shared the night of the barrier opening and even earlier this afternoon, she had figured he was like all of the Isle kids who had – _complicated_ relations with their villainous parents. But maybe things weren’t so black and white.

Harry’s shoulders tensed, she noticed, and it was a long moment before his eyes flicked up to look at her. “My dad was a harsh man,” he said, “but I didn’t know it at first. When it was just me and him on the _Jolly Roger_ , I didn’t think life could get better than that.” Then Harry’s gaze shuttered, like curtains falling to block out sunlight, as he looked back down at the menu. “But soon enough he lost the ship to debt collectors and – well, he liked his whiskey. And. Well. The Isle doesn’t have such a thing as happy endings.”

Audrey felt the welling of something – Pity? Compassion? – inside her chest as she watched while Harry began to fiddle with the hook. His fingertips brushed it like it was an object of comfort and security to him. It seemed she wasn’t the only one with nervous habits.

If Ben had been sitting across from her, she would have reached across the distance and placed her hand upon his, squeezing it to show she cared and understood. But with Harry – she didn’t know him, not much at all, and it didn’t matter that they had shared scattered moments across the past few days. Instead of indulging her impulse, to take his hand and grasp it out of some form of solidarity, she instead balled her hands around her shredded napkin. Would Mal or another Isle girl have taken his hand? Or, perhaps better yet, would an Auradon girl other than her have been able to bridge the distance and show a lost Isle boy some much-needed warmth?

Whatever that answer might have been, Audrey wasn’t that girl. And she didn’t know if she ever would be.

Finally, after letting the weight of Harry Hook’s confession lessen in the air, Audrey cleared her throat and looked down at her own menu. “You know what, pancakes topped with bananas sound great right now,” she said. “How about we split an order? My treat.”

The look Harry gave her right then – she still couldn’t tell what it meant, but she thought it might have held a tiny hint of gratitude.

*

“Ah, those pan-cake thingamabobs were a delight!” Harry said, satisfied, after they had exited the diner. Thankfully, Audrey hadn’t noted any lingering stares upon her back, though the waitress – a woman whose name tag had read, "Bo Peep" – had been far more congenial to the pirate boy, his eyes so full of wonder at all the new things in this other world, than to Audrey, whose face had just been plastered all over the news up until just hours ago.

But that was neither here nor there. Audrey was still an Auradon citizen. They would have to accept her back into the fold again at some point.

She did find Harry amusing, though, she grudgingly had to admit. His eyes had lit up like he was a little boy when he had first tasted the pancakes. And she had even let him finish her share, he had seemed to like them so much.

The banter between them had seemed to come to a truce as well, at least while they were in the safe zone of the Waffle Hut. Now that they were back in the open air, however, she supposed it was a free-for-all once again.

Then, of course, there was the matter of how _aware_ she was becoming of Harry, much to her – displeasure. It certainly didn’t help that he chose that moment to stretch his arms above his head, only to reveal a strip of his stomach where his shirt had ridden up.

 _Oh my,_ she thought, feeling heat tingle up her neck. Thank goodness she had never been a blusher since _that_ would have been a dead giveaway.

“It was nice,” she mumbled as she tore her eyes away from that scandalous sight. Sure, she had always gone swimming with Ben and his friends, but that had been a long time ago. And Chad Charming – well, he had been all too willing to show off his princely goods, but she had teased him with sweet words and compliments rather than distractions of the bodily variety.

The hook again met her skin, this time on her cheek as Harry turned her face so that they were meeting eye-to-eye. “I noticed you let me do most of the talking tonight,” he said. “Any reason as to why?”

Audrey willed herself to look composed instead of wilting like a flushed schoolgirl. _Stop staring at him. Stop thinking about—_

About how nice he might feel to touch, to feel, to hold. Those were dangerous thoughts.

“You seemed like you were in a chatty mood,” she said, hoping she looked stone-faced, “and I’m a princess, remember? I oblige my dates.”

Harry actually frowned at that, as if he didn’t like her tone – or her words. “I’d nearly forgotten,” he said. “I do owe you something.”

He was close enough that she felt her thoughts fleeing before she could voice them. “Owe me? For what?”

And there it was, once again, that smirk. “You bought me dinner,” he said, and like a cold splash of water she remembered how he had teased her just hours ago. _”I don’t kiss on the first date – unless you buy me dinner first.”_

Princesses didn’t swear often – not unless it was an absolute necessity – but Audrey certainly felt like swearing now. 

But two could play at this game. She laughed off the reminder, as if she had simply forgotten. Oh, silly little princess, with her head in the clouds. Would he fall for that? “Oh, that? I thought you were joking.”

She eyed him, a smile teasing around her lips, and he simply kept his eyes trained on her. Like he was weighing the odds of this particular little match.

“Did you now?” he murmured, the cool steel of the hook rubbing against her cheekbone. “Funny, I don’t really joke about things like that.”

And there it was: in the depths of his eyes, he was actually – sincere. The frown upon his face even spoke to a kind of hurt that he might have been trying very hard to mask.

Audrey’s heart squeezed uncomfortably. There it was again. She easily could have taken the step forward and given him the kiss he wanted. It would have been easy. It would be done, as simple as that, and they would never have to speak of it again. They would go their separate ways, pirate to the left and princess to the right, never again to meet – ships passing forever in the night.

All for the price of a kiss.

She huffed out a breath. Somehow, her life was becoming far too complicated far too quickly – and all over an Isle boy.

But while she debated, Harry didn’t just wait. He leaned in, and she closed her eyes out of instinct.

“Don’t look so tortured, princess,” he said, his mouth brushing against the same skin where his hook had just been. It wasn’t a kiss, not really, with the way his words danced against her skin – but she felt the fire anyway. “I’m not asking for your firstborn.”

Then it was over, a kiss for a meal, and he backed away.

But neither of them seemed happy about it, if she were honest.

*

When Audrey stepped back through the castle entrance just past sundown, she had to lean back against the door once she had closed it softly behind her. Her eyes fluttered upward to the ceiling as she felt her heart thud in her chest, and she willed it to slow, to thrum back in its normal rhythm. And her hands – she had never felt them so clammy, not even in all the years she had walked beside a someday-king whose smile had always been like sunshine.

When she closed her eyes, however, a new smile – as sharp as a shark’s feral grin – appeared in her mind. Its presence only caused her heart to stammer more.

 _No,_ she thought, shaking her head and trying to clear all images away. _He is a pirate boy, you are a princess, and you have your reputation to think of._ Then, more listlessly, she added as an aside, _Your reputation’s already in tatters because of what you did to the kingdom._

And, besides, Audrey knew her heart would more than bruise if she fell for someone like Harry Hook. Never mind that he was still an Isle boy through and through, much more likely to stab a prince than befriend one, and forget him having a One True Love. If anything, Harry would start his own little harem of befuddled Auradon girls, and Audrey would _not_ be a part of it.

She could not, _would not_ , fall in love with the son of Captain James Hook.

But that kiss – it had not been the kiss of an assured and confident man. It had been the question of a boy trying to figure out if a girl liked him or not.

And that was not so easily answered either.

Before another breath could whoosh out of Audrey’s lungs, though, she heard footsteps in the corridor. “Audrey?” her mother’s voice called.

Audrey pressed her fingers against the wood of the door. “Yes?”

Aurora, who was still dressed in her silver pantsuit for the charity function, appeared around the corner. She looked worried, and Audrey couldn’t blame her mother. Audrey hadn’t left the house since the celebration her parents had made her attend. That same night she had met Harry for the first time.

“Where were you all this time?” Aurora asked.

It was a good thing, Audrey supposed, that she had forbid Flora or Fauna to tell her parents about their unexpected _guest_. Fairies couldn’t disobey the ones who had possession of their true names.

And it certainly wasn’t the time to tell her parents about Harry anyway, no matter if they remained acquaintances or not. Her parents were already concerned she still bore some vestiges of the scepter of darkness; they would probably be looking for all the signs to see if there were lingering influences from the power that had been coursing through her unbidden.

Harry, no matter his allegiances now, would be a _bad, bad_ sign. 

So Audrey just smiled as if still were still the queen bee who had ruled Auradon Prep for years. It had been so easy to fool all of them all that time, so why couldn’t she do the same for her parents for a little while? No need to make them worry unnecessarily. “Nowhere, Mother,” she said. “Just the garden for a stroll.” Then she paused, adding as an afterthought, “It was lovely.”

It was for the best, really.

Because, whatever Harry Hook’s faults, maybe he was better off without a girl like Audrey after all.


	3. undeterred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Audrey knows that Harry Hook might not be good for her, or she for him, but she still can't help but wonder, _What if?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any Disney properties. Here's chapter 3! I hope everyone who's reading enjoys it (character quibbles aside; they can't always make the best decisions!).

_Audrey knew it was a dream, but that did not make it any less foreboding._

_She stood in a hallway illuminated by torches on sconces along the stone walls. If she had reached her arms out on either side of her, she would have stretched the width of the hall. Her feet drifted forward soundlessly, as if she knew where she was going without even being told._

_Before her was an inner chamber circled in yet more torches – and against the backdrop sat a throne with spires jutting out behind it like thorns from rose stems. She felt pulled mercilessly forward as if behind her stomach were tied a string and someone had tugged at her with no thought to the force it inflicted. Then she sat down upon the throne as if she belonged there._

_“It’s a shame,” a voice told her, as if the figure stood right beside her, but Audrey made no move to turn towards the voice and see its visage. “Everyone said they loved you, but where are they now? Who appreciates you, as I do?”_

_“No one,” Audrey felt her lips move to say, but something inside her screamed –_ “That isn’t true, my parents love me, Auradon loves me” – _but even those words were only a dream. Her chance to be queen was lost, gone to another, and she could not have reclaimed it even if she had wanted to._

 _And a part of her_ did _want to, even now._

_“Oh, child,” the voice said, “do not cry. It doesn’t suit you.”_

_It was only then that Audrey realized tears had slipped down her cheeks, the betrayal of her true emotions. She did nothing to stop them as they continued to spill forth, as if they might fill a wishing well wherein all her deepest desires might come true._

_“You desire true love,” the voice said, “and I will give it to you. You need not hesitate with me. We will find you your place – just be patient.”_

_But the words left Audrey feeling cold instead of warm. They were nothing like her mother Aurora’s words or even her father Phillip’s – they were puppetry, nothing more, but she still felt inclined to listen._

_And so ready to believe._

_Then the figure stepped forward, and she felt her chin turned up . . . only to find herself staring_ at _herself, truer than any mirror – except this was the version of herself that had wielded the scepter of darkness._

_“Trust in me,” her truest self said, “and we will conquer worlds, anything and everything you could ever imagine.”_

_Then the self that she knew still lay within her held out her hand, and Audrey placed her palm within it and held on as if for dear life…_

With a gasp, Audrey awoke to find herself tangled in her sheets, cold sweat bleeding from her pores and soaking her pajamas and her bed. She sat up, looking around her to see if she was joined by that apparition of herself, but she was alone. A shaky breath of relief spilled out of her lips.

Then, when she had rinsed her face in the bathroom and changed out of her drenched clothes into a fresh pair, she lay back down in her bed.

But it was a long while before she was able to settle into sleep again.

*

By morning, Audrey had recovered from the dream, enough that she had pushed it to the nether reaches of her mind so that it would not haunt her day. She readied herself as if for battle as she stood in front of her mirror, tying her hair back in a high ponytail and donning a sporty outfit as if she were going for a run. She gave her reflection a grin, but even that was a limp effort at best. When she was satisfied, she retreated out the side door to the garden so she wouldn’t cross paths with her parents before they went to work.

She found her targets straightaway: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather were abuzz with chatter in the garden, and Audrey knew they were talking about her when their words halted when she drew near. She eyed the gossiping fairies as she approached.

“Did you have a good vacation, Merryweather?” Audrey asked, her voice pleasant, as she eyed the fairy bedecked in a blue ensemble from her dress shirt all the way down to her ballet flats. The fairy in question simply nodded. “I bet you enjoyed your time away from your first year at the school. What were you teaching again? Life Skills?”

“Yes, Life Skills Without Magic,” Merryweather replied, her voice a distant echo of its usual boisterous self. Audrey watched her thoughtfully; fairies were bad at lying to start, but Merryweather was one of the worst. If anyone had anything to say about Harry Hook or Audrey’s involvement with him, it would be the fairy with a penchant for blue.

“Oh, I bet you _loved_ that,” Audrey said, tittering softly for good measure, while the fairies watched her warily. She had to admit she couldn’t blame them: as a child, she had been a terror for them, even going so far as to steal one of their wands – back before magic had been restricted in Auradon – and change Flora into a chipmunk. Audrey supposed the matter with Maleficent’s scepter hadn’t come as a _complete_ surprise to any of the three fairies, now that she thought of it.

“Audrey,” Flora said, her voice hesitant, “if you want to speak about that boy—”

“Boy?” Audrey’s eyebrows lifted in innocence. “What boy? Have I conjured one out of thin air that I don’t know about?”

Fauna said nothing, but her eyes flitted between Flora and Merryweather before the latter said, in a rush, “Audrey, dear, you cannot date a boy from the Isle, what will your mother and father think—”

“There. Is. No. Boy.” Audrey leveled her eyes on the three who were much shorter than her. “I won’t hear any more on it. Are we clear on that?”

The fairies simply nodded their assent, and Audrey knew that there was truly no more risk of any tattling from the pesky fairies and all their well-meaning intentions. If her parents were to know about Harry Hook, it would be on _her_ time – as simple as that.

*

Audrey told herself she would go for just a light jog through the Fairy Garden before circling around to the preserves outside the Enchanted Lake area, but she convinced herself to pass through downtown Auradon City – potential stares and whispers be damned. And she was _not_ , _absolutely not_ , on the sly look-out for one dashing pirate who had kissed her cheek yesterday.

What she didn’t expect was to run straight into Jane and her boyfriend Carlos as they were walking out of a candy and ice cream shop called the Chocolate Factory. Audrey nearly had a conniption because Jane’s chocolate ice cream cone almost collided with the pale pink of her Auradon Knights track jacket.

“Oh!” Jane actually looked delighted to see her, all things considered. “Hey, Audrey. Enjoying the beautiful day?”

No apology, no words of caution, just a sunny and oblivious demeanor. No wonder Audrey had lasted longer as a villainous force with the scepter than Jane had back when she had grabbed her mother’s wand at Ben’s coronation.

“Oh, hi,” Audrey said, her eyes flitting between Jane and her boyfriend. “Yeah, great day, perfect weather. Are you guys, um, out on a date?”

To no one’s surprise, blushes stirred in both Jane and Carlos’s faces. It was actually rather sweet to see. “Yes,” Jane said, “Carlos and I were just wandering through some of the shops. Window shopping, you know.” Then Jane’s eyes popped open wide. “Oh! Guess who we just saw? Harry and some of the Isle pirates.”

Audrey tried to keep the surprise on her face to a minimum, but she was a bit confused: what was Harry doing in downtown Auradon City? Were he and his pirate friends planning to ransack the shops? “Oh, well . . . that’s interesting. But why would I care about anything Harry Hook does?”

Jane cast her a meaningful glance before Carlos interjected, “We all saw how you slipped away at the dance party the other night. Hard to miss a pirate and a princess breaking off from the group for a little alone time.”

A little too forcefully, Jane elbowed Carlos in the side, but even the fairy godmother’s daughter couldn’t help fighting a smile that was surely locking away giggles. “Don’t worry,” Jane said. “No one’s put out an announcement that you’re dating or anything. Even Auradon is too last century for _that_ fast of a response.”

A dance of panic began to whirl in Audrey’s stomach as she tried not to show the growing alarm on her face. But she had to get out of here: Jane was one of her oldest friends, and the intuitive girl would be able to sense something was wrong sooner rather than later. “It was just a dance,” she said, trying to keep the flames of rumor down. What if her mother found out? “I was just – just trying to be nice.”

Jane laughed, but she had begun to twirl her hair around her finger nervously. “Oh, Audrey, you deserve to let loose once in a while. It’s not the end of the world.”

But Audrey noticed that even Carlos was looking at her with concern now. She had to get out of here. Now.

“It was great seeing you guys,” Audrey said, starting to jog back in place for a warm-up before she dashed off to do some more damage control, “but I’d better get back to my run. See you around!”

Then, before either Jane or Carlos could stop her, she made her great escape down the sidewalks of downtown Auradon City.

*

But fortune, it seemed, was just not on Audrey’s side today.

“Oi, princess, wait up!” came a familiar and, at this time, unwelcome voice from Whosits and Whatsits, a little tourist trap of a shop with all manner of goods for the out-of-towner. Reluctantly, she stopped her jog and watched as the ex-pirate came to a stop behind her, a sloppy grin on his face. “Why, hello, lassie. Working up a sweat this fine morning? You should have contacted me; I would have been happy to join you.”

She met his messy innuendo with a cold stare. “Even if I wanted to, I don’t see how I could contact you when I have a feeling you’re homeless.”

Harry seemed a bit staggered by her rebuke, but he put his hands to his heart in a dramatic way. “Oh, princess, you wound me! I’m trying to be a respectable citizen, but alas, I have to stay on Uma’s ship till I find permanent lodging.”

Audrey felt a tiny stab of regret at her meanness, but she was still in a frenzy over her . . . assumed relationship with Harry Hook and the rumor mill spreading through Auradon. Had he told anyone about their date? And would it get back to her parents?

“So what are you doing?” she asked, trying to be nicer, but it was an effort with the mood she was in. “Let me guess. Pillaging and plundering?”

Harry cocked his head and pointed his hook at her. “Very funny, princess. Does it look like I have the townsfolk after me with pitchforks and torches?”

 _Not yet,_ she wanted to say, but those might have been fighting words. And she already knew from experience that he didn’t need much help getting riled up, especially from her.

“So what _are_ you doing?” she continued to press. “Looking for fair maidens to swindle?”

The pirate boy laughed at her, as was his penchant, but for some reason she didn’t mind as much this time. “I think I have only one _fair maiden_ on my list, and she’s not one for my old tricks.”

Her stomach squirmed in a familiar way, but Audrey would have none of that. This was about business, no more, no less. “Harry, just tell me what you’re doing here. I’m absolutely burning to know.”

His eyes sparked at the word _burning_ , and she could tell he had a hard time grappling with the need to make a suggestive remark about that too. But he relented and said, “I have to get myself a job, princess. Rent doesn’t pay for itself.”

At that moment, his eyes retreating from hers, Audrey couldn’t help feeling a bit of shame that she had thought he would be up to no good in the downtown area. And she, still living under her parents’ roof with no apparent end to that arrangement any time soon, didn’t have to worry about things like finding an apartment or wondering where next month’s rent was coming from. It made her feel . . . like a spoiled little girl. Which she was, technically, but—

“I could have shown you around,” she said at last. “I mean, I’ve lived here all my life, so I know a lot of the shop owners. You know where I live, so it’s not exactly hard to find me.”

To her surprise, Harry was quiet – rare for him, since he always seemed to have a quip ready to fire at any time. “Ah, princess, I didn’t think that was the best idea. You didn’t exactly make it seem like you were itching to see me again anytime soon.”

Watching him – she felt that peculiar desire to comfort him again, the same way she had felt when he had been talking about his dad while they were at the Waffle Hut last night. But he wasn’t her little Harry whom she could protect from all the ills of the world. He wasn’t even her boyfriend. And, lest she have to remind herself, she didn’t _want_ him to be.

But. Well. Even she could make concessions in some areas.

Audrey cleared her throat. “We don’t – we don’t have to go on _dates_ or anything if you just, like, need a friend or whatever. I’m not the best person to be around, but I can be a friend to you. If you’d like.”

She couldn’t help but notice he looked – hurt. Yes, hurt. But she couldn’t do anything about that. She would nip this little complication at the root before it could flower and hurt them both, strangling them like vines, weeds, and thorns.

“Ah, friends,” Harry said at last. “I can’t say that exactly cheers me to my bones, princess, but I wouldn’t mind being your friend. If that’s all you’d like from _me_.”

There it was. He was offering her an out, even now. They could step toward each other and act on their passions with no thought for Auradon’s mores and strictures. But . . . her parents. Her parents would not want her dating a boy like Harry Hook.

Or that was the excuse she gave herself, anyway.

“I’d like that,” she finally said, smiling. “Let’s be friends, Harry Hook.”

Harry returned her smile with only a phantom of what his grin usually could do – but then he held out his hook to her. “The pleasure’s mine, princess.”

With only the tiniest bit of hesitation, Audrey grasped the hook and shook as if she were making a solemn oath.


End file.
